Earl: “Act Up” is the first song I had on the radio.
I was in the house and I was just making beats on some regular shit.
I sent it to Yachty to send to the City Girls 'cause I didn't have their email, but he was
overhearing the beat and he was like, “this shit fire.”
I was like, you need to go ahead and write a song because they finna go up.
And he wrote it and it’s the song that everybody is singing right now.
So I feel like I was seeing the vision back then.
Earl: Man, I met Yachty when I was like seven or eight years old and that's been my nigga ever since.
How did we meet, bruh?
Tell them how you met me.
Lil Yachty: How I met you?
I think the sky was blue. It was about 3:45.
The year was 2004-5,6,?
I don’t know, I forgot.
I was walking into the boys and girls club and needed a friend.
You said, “Yo what’s up?” and extended your hand and I was like…
[Laughs]
Lil Yachty: I don’t know nigga!
The fuck?
It was a long time ago!
Earl: Before music before all this shit we were in school, you know what I’m saying.
We just kinda just grew.
Earl: The inspiration from this song was really from “Back That Azz Up.”
I didn't want it to sound like New Orleans bounce, but I wanted it to sound like, my
own wave of, just some twerk shit.
Earl: When I first started making the Act Up beat, I started out with like the old school
kind of dancey base.
I had started out with this VST called track God, and it was like, just really simple.
So there, I just went with the VST called expand two and I used xylophones.
I don’t play keys, so when I make beats, on some lazy shit, I was just clicking shit in.
It still sounded like my sound in a way and I just liked it.
Earl: And then I layered it with another sound from Omisphere, and I just copied the same pattern.
Me merging two sounds together makes it more playful than it already was with one sound.
Earl: Once, once I got done with the melody in that base, I kind of just started just
adding the drums, like the percussions and just shit to just fill the beat in, and I
started with the clap.
Earl: I added a snare.
When the snare and the claps together it hits harder.
After that, I went to the high hats.That’s your bounce, you know what I’m saying that’s
kind of what’s controlling the song.
After that, the cowbells.
That’s like some New Orleans shit, I guess.
I’m not sure, but it sounds good in the song.
Earl: I added some percussions in the background.
It’s like a background sound, like some cool little shakers.
I added another background sound and it’s kind of like a clap.
It’s kind of clapping like this.
Earl: I wanted to do the beat with no 808 and no kick, but it didn’t sound as hard.
Earl: I think the kick is following that 808.
And I never do my kicks and shit like that but it was for the sake of the twerk beat.
When you’re making a, when you're making a more up-tempo, harder sound, you need that kick.
Earl: I also added open hats to it, to make it kind of, just bring it together, just bring
the background sounds together.
Most twerk beats, they use a crash symbol, you know what I'm saying?
So, I decided to use a open hat instead.
With the rest of the beat, it might sound like this.
Earl: After all those sounds, I added the scratch.
This was one of the last things I added to the beat.
It was just a sound that I seen.
I was like, "That would sound fire."
Earl: A lot of people thought that in the part where it's kind of like the beat breaks
down, that the engineer did it, but I kind of did it myself.
I made a new channel, and I kind of just grabbed what I wanted.
The expand 2, the omnisphere, the open hat, the scratch, the drums, and I just
did it like this.
So as you can see it’s like on all the channels.
And then when you have all these sounds together, this is the outcome.
Earl: I was on some shit like, I want a timeless song.
You could play it at a graduation.
You could play it at a wedding.
You could play it at a party.
It’s for old people.
It’s for young people.
It’s for people my age, like right there in the middle.
It’s for everybody.
Earl: I think people love this song because, it’s the lyrics.
It’s the lyrics and it’s the beat, of course, you know what I’m saying, but the
lyrics it’s just like, it’s carefree.
Lil Yachty: I just know them personally so I know how they think and how they talk.
And I know how girls act.
I literally wrote that song thinking like a female, like what a female would wanna do.
You know what I’m saying?
Or what would turn a female up, basically.
Lil Yachty: When I did it, all y’all was laughing.
Earl: Yeah that shit was hella funny.
Lil Yachty: I was like, “but this is gonna be something.”
I ain’t say that beacuse I didn’t know it was gonna be something, but I did it and
I sent it to em.
I didn’t even know they was gonna use it.
And then they used it, and it became big.
Earl: With the challenge, it came from Twitter.
Somebody did the hashtag, #ActUpChallenge.
It was playing in like a church, I was like, “woah y’all niggas trippin,’ but go up!”
You know what I’m saying?
Earl: And then once that happened people started getting on the actual beat.
It was so many people who was doing it, I can’t even keep up, but yeah that shit was hard.
Earl: This was the last song, not the last song.
I’m not saying it like that.
But it just...
I just thought my first hit was gonna be “Get Drip” by Lil Yachty and Playboi Carti.
I thought that was gonna be the one that just took me out of here, but you never know.
So for all y’all producers, up and coming producers.
Just keep working because you never know what’s gonna be that one.
Lil Yachty: I don’t even like that beat.
Earl: That’s a damn lie.
Lil Yachty: I didn’t like that beat.
When you played that shit, it’s not like I was like “Oh, Earl lemme keep that for myself.
Earl: You should have seen what you said when I sent it to your phone.
I still got the message up.
Lil Yachty: What’d I say?
Earl: Imma find it, matter of fact.
Lil Yachty: What’d I say?
Earl: I’m finna show you right now.
Gimme a second.
Lil Yachty: Bruh you is not finna find a message from early last year.
Earl: Bruh I don’t delete threads just in case of shit like this.
Lil Yachty: Yeah, me either!
But so what you finna keep scrolling up?
Earl: Ah.
Ah!
Yeah, I don’t know.
LIl Yacty: Aight cool.
Come back to the screen please.
All this cap ass shit you doing for the fucking camera.